Review: Scratch by Rhonda Helms

Scratch - Rhonda Helms

Quick review for a fairly quick read. I think the only thing I can say that was good about "Scratch" was that it was a mercifully quick read. Oddly enough, that was also the major problem with it. This first read I've perused by Rhonda Helms has an ironic name attached to it, because reading this felt like the narrative only barely skimmed the surface of all the themes it chose to touch upon for the story. The idea for the premise actually isn't bad at all - a girl passionate about music DJing at a club has to grapple with events of her past while finding love at the same time. It's formulaic, but I thought I'd be in for a better read than what was handed to me. And that cover, man. It's a good cover, I love the colors and the thematic/promise of a music theme.

But that's all it was: an empty promise.

The writing in this was terrible. I kid you not. Besides the paint by numbers adaptation of New Adult thematics, I think the writing was the thing that ruined this narrative for me the most. It was far too shallow with its presentation of everything - from the heroine's problems, to the instalust between Casey and Daniel, to just...everything. It's not the plot itself that's the problem, because a better writer could've made that formula work. Here? Dude, no. I've never read a heroine whose nipples pebbled so much at the mere touch or just for standing in the vicinity of the hero. Or the way she kept saying over and over again that she "never felt anything like *insert experience here* before". It beats you over the head and the emotion feels forced and false.

And I still can't get over how one can "fluff" their boobs.

Yeah, I can't recommend this one, sadly. There are much better narratives that actually take the time and energy to develop their characters, scenarios, and tragic circumstances with much more maturity and value than this did, and it was to its own disservice that the presentation did not work for it.

Overall score: 0.5/5 stars

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher.